Friday, December 24, 2010

In just a few, okay four, hours the other day, I made some significant leaps and bounds in planning for second semester. With that much already done, I feel like I can be truly successful in making those lessons more 21st century, and generally better and more interesting for that mattter.
Don't stop now Special K!

Monday, December 20, 2010

It's finally winter break. Finally. I love my job, but, yes, finally! Two weeks of rest, family, too much food, running, and time for myself. The end of the semester marks the end of the "Romeo and Juliet" unit I taught. It went well. The kids liked the play, they did well on the exams, and they turned in some good quality projects. Of course some of them learned nothing, did poorly on the exams, and turned in horrific projects. But what can you do.
The real point of this blogpost is to reflect on how much of a 21st century educator I was during this unit. Which was, as you may know, my goal in starting this blog at the same time I started that unit. To sum it up - I failed. Miserably. I did nothing different than I did in "The Odyssey" unit. Every day I thought about it and never came up with anything.
But I'm not one to dwell on the disappointing past. So here's the plan - I have two weeks to get started on the next unit for my freshmen. That means I can research and reflect to my heart's content. I know I can do this. I really do know. And even though I didn't succeed during "R&J" I certainly did learn. I learned how it felt to disappoint yourself, I learned how to do better, I learned that I really am motivated to do this. Besides, my next unit is nonfiction, and I KNOW there's a ton of great stuff I can do with that. It's definitely more free and open.
So, onward and upward, I hope.
We'll see.